About Tables

Whether iconic or innovative, large or small, modern tables offer a prime opportunity to make emphatic visual statements. A table, unlike a sofa, chair or modern bench, needs to fulfill only one requirement—provide a flat surface area—but is otherwise unencumbered by any other parameters, be it material, shape or size. For this reason, needing to shop for a modern table, irrespective of its specific function, presents an opportunity to get adventurous with your contemporary design choices.

While there’s an endless range of contemporary table styles with myriad uses available at modern design stores, most of your table needs will typically fall into three categories—coffee table, modern dining table, and side or end table—and selecting each of these pieces with quality and longevity in mind will keep you from buying poorly crafted, trendy furniture that quickly outgrows both your needs and your design sensibilities.

Aim for modern coffee tables with staying power.

With its central role (often literally) in a room, a striking coffee table can easily turn into a room’s major star. Whether because of sheer size, interesting shape or inventive materials, a beautiful modern coffee table can be supremely functional, versatile, and visually arresting—making it a potential investment piece that’s also great fun to shop for.

If your preference is for time-honored design, a modern coffee table by celebrated Mid-Century designers may be where your search should begin. But if your taste veers towards the latest technologies and work by emerging designers, your choices are even broader. Whichever you opt for, consider a contemporary coffee table with true staying power, a gift that keeps on giving, so to speak.

Invest in modern dining tables.

As with coffee tables, finding the ideal dining table is well worth the effort involved. Owing to its size, primary function, and versatility, a gorgeous modern dining table can give an ordinary dining space twice the esthetic panache that paint or even architectural details may sometimes deliver.

Because a contemporary dining table serves a primary role in both everyday life and special gatherings, taking the time to carefully select a dining table that best suits your lifestyle—formal or casual; rectangle or oval—and which also reflects your contemporary design sensibilities—is something you’re not likely to ever regret.

Versatility is key with modern side tables and end tables.

Accent pieces that nevertheless prove both versatile and supremely functional—but typically cost less—modern side tables or end tables can round out a contemporary furniture ensemble beautifully. Much like a single, beautifully contoured chair, a perfectly placed modern end table that also happens to be well constructed and pretty can offer years, even decades, of use and joy by being compact, versatile, and suited to virtually any room in a house or apartment.